Hello Scarborough Middle School Families,

Please take a close look at this week’s Friday Family News. There are lots of important pieces of information included this week.

Respectfully,

Kathy Tirrell, Principal

Chris Murphy, Assistant Principal

Semester 1 ends on Friday, January 24. Some helpful hints to help your child be as successful as possible as the first semester comes to an end:

• Check PowerSchool to determine if they have any missing assignments

• If your child has missed school, please have your child follow up with their teacher to make a plan for missing assignments

• Remind your child to utilize RISE to check in with their teachers

Below are instructions on how to access PowerSchool, and we encourage you to view your child’s progress on a regular basis.

How to use PowerSchool:

• PowerSchool Parent Access Information

• Parent Portal Information

• PowerSchool Mobile App Information

PowerSchool login page:

• Scarborough PowerSchool Login

Where to view grades:

• Once in your child’s portal, click on Grades and Attendance, see grades in Q2 or S1 column under Course Information

Grading and Reporting Guide:

• Grading and Reporting Guide

SMS is looking for large empty and cleaned out pretzel/cheese ball containers or similar size/style see through containers with lid (see example pictures below) for an upcoming event. If you have any empty containers at your home that you would be willing to donate please drop them off at the SMS main office.

Items needed by February 14.

Our school is taking part in the 2025 Maine Integrated Youth Health Survey. This survey is sponsored by Maine Center for Disease Control and Maine Department of Education. The survey will ask about the health behaviors of 6th, 7th, and 8th grade students. The survey will ask about nutrition, physical activity, injuries, tobacco, alcohol, and other drug use. For students in grades 7-12, the survey will also ask about sexual behaviors that could lead to pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections; depression and suicide; and gambling.

Students will be asked to fill out a survey that takes about 30-45 minutes to complete.

Participating in this survey will cause little or no risk to your child. The only potential risk is that some students might find certain questions to be sensitive. The survey has been designed to protect your child’s privacy. Students will not put their name on the survey or student ID numbers. Also, no student will ever be mentioned by name in a report of the results. For the survey results to be accurate, it is important that all students, regardless of whether they have engaged in health-risk behavior, are given an opportunity to participate in the survey, but the survey is voluntary. No action will be taken against the school, you, or your child if your child does not take the survey. Students may skip any questions they do not wish to answer. In addition, students may stop taking the survey at any point without penalty. If you would like to see the types of questions on the survey, the question banks are available at www.maine.gov/miyhs/2025-survey-information.

Please read here of for more facts about the survey. Complete the form located here and return it to the school by Friday, January 31st or email Vicki Lemelin at Vlemelin@scarboroughschools.org only if you do not want your child to take part in the survey.

If you have additional questions about the survey your child’s teacher or principal cannot answer, please email: miyhs.dhhs@maine.gov.

As you are aware, after two weather related school closings, any additional days will be remote.

Remote learning days will be asynchronous days (students will not login for live classes).

Lessons and Assignments

Teachers will give students an assignment a day or a couple of days before a possible snow day, in case school is canceled. Teachers will also post the assignment on their Google Classrooms. Students are responsible for checking their Google Classrooms based on their class schedule. The assignments will be due within two school days upon returning to school.

Teacher Availability

Provided that teachers/staff have power, they will be available between the hours of 7:40-2:40 by email to support students who may need assistance in completing their assignments or need to check in for any other support.

Attendance

A Google Form will be sent out to students’ email addresses by the office staff to collect attendance/participation information. The form will be sent out by 8:30 a.m. and we ask students to fill the form out by 10:00 a.m. Parents will also receive a reminder email that their student(s) need to fill out the attendance form. If this information can not be collected due to power outages, please contact the office the next day at 730-4800 or by email msoffice@scarboroughschools.org.

SMS Remote snow day #1 Attendance form: this form will be accepting responses on the day of our first remote snow day.

SPS Closure Hub (Coming Soon!)

Meals will be provided during remote learning snow days. Non-perishable meals will be sent home in advance with all students who a meal has been requested for. Please fill out this form to have your child's name added to the list of kids receiving a meal. If you have multiple children, please fill out the form for each child individually. After each remote learning snow day, we will send home another non-perishable meal for possible future remote learning days. You do not need to resubmit on the form again for each remote learning snow day. Once you are on the list you are on it for the winter, if you would like to be removed from the list, please contact your school.

Scarborough Public Schools has been using GoGuardian Beacon services as part of our school’s broader suicide prevention program. GoGuardian Beacon is monitoring software used on school issued devices. One of its features includes parent/guardian notifications, which provide instant alerts if a student’s online activity after school hours raises concerns while using these devices.

Although we had hoped to enable the parent notification feature this week, we are currently addressing some issues with its implementation. We will notify you as soon as the feature is fully operational.

In the interim, the system will continue to work as it has this year and past school years. If an alert is generated by the GOGuardian Beacon software it will be sent to administrators to follow up on and communication with parents will occur as needed.

Here is the SMS Clinic amazon wish list. We will continue to update our wish list with items that would be most useful to us in the clinic. So please keep checking back if you would like to contribute!

If you don’t use amazon and would still like to donate please take a look at the list and feel free to drop something similar off to the middle school.

Please help us continue to support our students in as many ways as possible.

Nurse Amanda and Nurse Laurel

2024-2025 SMS Yearbooks are now on sale! Pre-order now and check it off your to-do list for the year! You can also take advantage of a back to school offer for up to 4 icons when you order a personalized book. Please visit the SMS Yearbook Website for more details on how to order.

Visit our SMS Yearbook Website for additional details, including more tips for ordering a yearbook. If you still have questions after visiting the website, please reach out to Mr. Cabana (wcabana@scarboroughschools.org).

2024-25 Scarborough School Calendar

JANUARY

Martin Luther King Day

• NO SCHOOL , Monday, January 20

Grade 6-8 Chorus Concert

• January 21: 7:00 at SHS

Grade 6-8 Band Concert

• January 23: 8th Grade 6:30 at SHS
• January 23: 6th & 7th grade 7:30 at SHS

End of Quarter 2/Semester 1

• January 24

FEBRUARY

Early Release Day

• Wednesday February 12

February Break- NO SCHOOL

• February 17-February 21

Looking Ahead:

MAY

6th Grade Dance-

• Friday, May 2 from 5:00pm-7:00pm

7th Grade Dance-

• Friday, May 16 from 5:00pm-7:00pm

JUNE

8th Grade Celebration and Dance

• Friday, June 6

Families should report their middle school student's absence from school by calling the SMS main office at 207-730-4800 or by email at msoffice@scarboroughschools.org. A reason for the absence must be stated, otherwise SMS office staff will reach out to determine the reason for the absence.

Excusable reasons for an absence:

• illness
• appointment
• religious holiday
• family emergency
• planned absence

For Planned Absences (a day out of school which is not illness or medical appointment related), families should fill out the Scarborough Middle School Planned Absence for which is found here.

For questions about attendance, please contact the Scarborough Middle School main office at 207-730-4800 or email us at msoffice@scarboroughschools.org

Email: msoffice@scarboroughschools.org
Website: https://sms.scarboroughschools.org/
Location: 21 Quentin Drive, Scarborough, ME, USA
Phone: (207) 730-4800
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarbmeschools/
Twitter: @scarbmeschools